FremMlle's Voyage to the North Pole. 89 



which roll precipitously into the roads and ways, like so many 

 torrents, to overwhelm and obliterate the traces of them* 



I was witness to several of these sorts of avalanches, which 

 sometimes also take place in the fine season, but ever with a 

 frightful noise, and a smell resembling that which arises from 

 the calcination of bricks or lime-stone. 



Not only the cold, but frequent earthquakes shake and over- 

 throw the mountains of Iceland to their foundations ; cleav- 

 ing, disarranging, changing the direction of their constituent 

 materials, which lose their consistence. 



A number of mountains present extinguished craters; 

 others are still ignivomons. In the interior of the island, 

 some terrible eruptions took place in 1784, 1752, and 1755. 

 The principal volcano, at present, is the mountain Krafte, 

 which is ever emitting smoke and lava. Hekla, at the time 

 of our stay there, was in a state of repose, but it has had new 

 eruptions since. 



Hot-springs and fountains are very numerous in the island; 

 they excel all others known, in the abundance and degree of 

 heat of their waters. The principal are, the springs of Gey- 

 sen, situated at about two days walking journey from Hekla, 

 and near Skalholt ; they issue alternately from three succes- 

 sive jetteaux of a considerable height. We saw one between 

 Patrix Fiord and Lusbay, hot enough for the Icelanders to 

 dress their victuals in. 



The exterior geography of Iceland, that is to say, of the 

 coasts, is as yet a desideratum for nearly the whole; the 

 northern part is the least frequented, and the least known. 

 The charts we had of them before the voyage of La Flore, 

 had been copied from documents grounded on accounts of the 

 Flemish and Dutch fishermen, and do not merit confidence* 

 The chart published in 1767, in the French Neptune, is taken 

 from M . Horrebow's ; though better than the rest, with re- 

 spect to the general configuration of the lands, it is full of 

 errors as to the longitudes of places. 



All the ancient Dutch charts place in the entrance, and 

 about three leagues from the bay of Patrix Fiord, a group of 

 ten islets, called Gouberman's Islands ; there is not, however, 

 the least trace of them. It is certain that the group must 

 .have formerly been in the situation, as the tradition of them 

 is kept up in the country, and they have doubtless been over- 

 whelmed, in consequence of some sub-marine convulsion. 

 The same fate has probably carried away Pepy*s Island, which 

 is now no where to be found, but which stands in the ancient 

 charts near the eastern coast of Iceland, in 64 degrees of 

 latitude. 

 VOYAGES and TRAVELS, No. 2. Vol. II. N 



